It’s not known whether or not Albert Lench attended the party. He’d have heard all of the noise outside though, that’s for sure...

Boisterous kids shouting and calling to each other - mothers, wives and girlfriends busily dragging kitchen chairs across the street, whooping as they threw makeshift tablecloths across the trestle-tables. The rattle of cutlery and crockery. The hammering of nails into bunting-adorned window sills. Dogs barking, excited by all of the activity.

It would most probably have been too soon for Albert to get wrapped-up in the celebrations; it had only been a month or so since he’d learned of the death of Gerald; the second youngest of his four sons who were all serving overseas.

Anyway, the mates that Gerald had made since he’d joined-up in 1943 were still fighting. The war against the Japanese was still raging and young British lads were still falling. Surely no one could blame Albert for not being swept along with the euphoria of VE Day celebrations…

Gerald was born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire in 1924, the sixth child and third son of parents Albert and Ada Lench; Albert was a railway guard for the GWR and Ada was kept busy looking after the family home.

When Gerald was just two years-old, he gained a little brother named Leslie. For a few years, Albert, Ada and the seven kids, all lived happily together at number 23 Brinton Crescent in Kidderminster. However, tragedy struck the family in 1935, when Gerald’s mum passed away.

As widower Albert watched his children grow older, he would have been mightily relieved to see them all find work.

On finishing school, Gerald too was offered employment, following his siblings into the carpet industry. His sisters Lilly, Dorothy and Beryl worked in spool-preparation and finishing-sheds, whilst his brothers Edward and George worked in weaving mills as creelers, tending to the yarn bobbins in the creels at the rear of the carpet looms.

Gerald started his working life as a creeler too – in the Stour Vale mill of Woodward Grosvenor Ltd. one of Kidderminster’s oldest carpet manufactories. It’s very likely that Gerald’s big brother Edward (Eddie to everybody) had ‘put a good word in’ for him, because he’d been working in the Stour Vale mill for some time before Gerald had finished his schooling.

When war came in 1939, Gerald was just fifteen years-old and it wasn’t long before he’d seen his two elder brothers Eddie and George sign-up, both keen to “do their bit” (by this time, George was known to everyone by his middle name, Albert).

It was inevitable that Gerald would soon also be donning the khaki, but before he did, he first had the small matter of marrying his sweetheart to sort out!

In 1943, Gerald tied the knot with Agnes Joan Reynolds and they set up home in the Franche district of Kidderminster. Then Gerald went off to war…

Gerald joined the Worcestershire Regiment (the same regiment that his big brother Eddie was serving in) and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion. On completion of his training he was immediately deployed overseas.

Prior to his joining them, Gerald’s 2nd Battalion had been moved to Madras to counter the threat of a Japanese invasion of India following the fall of Singapore in February 1942, and it was most probably here that Gerald caught up with them. The battalion eventually advanced into Burma to meet Japanese advances in November 1944.

Both the 2nd and the 7th Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment fought under the umbrella of the South East Asia Command (SEAC) and throughout the whole of their Burma campaign, it was a tale of fight and advance - never once was either battalion forced back.

In one action at Merema near Kohima, the 7th Battalion dislodged in just 36 hours, a Japanese force that had been ordered to hold their position for ten days. In the last two months of 1944 both Worcestershire battalions advanced on the enemy, taking different routes.

Leaving behind 350 miles of soil and dust once trodden by the Japanese, the 7th Battalion reached and crossed the Chindwin at Kalewa. They then crossed the sandy plain of Central Burma and moved towards Shwebo.

Meanwhile, Gerald’s 2nd Battalion had completed one of the greatest forced-marches of the whole Burma Campaign; covering 400 miles in six weeks and arriving at Shwebo shortly after the 7th Battalion - who were there waiting for them with a meal laid out in the open, on tables covered with parachutes as table cloths!

The next target for Gerald’s battalion was Mandalay but before that nut could be cracked, Gerald and his oppos’ had to breakout from the bridgehead forged on the far side of the Irrawaddy River by the 1/15th Punjab Regiment.

Gerald had crossed the Irrawaddy on either the 18th or the 19th of January 1945 (the operation was completed in two separate crossings), helping strengthen the bridgehead and supporting the under-fire Indian troops around the deserted village of Ngapyinin.

It had been determined that to improve the chances of an effective breakout, a Japanese occupied village named Kule must first be taken – and Gerald’s 2nd Battalion was chosen for the task.

The date set for the attack was the 8th of February 1945. The battle of Kule marked the turning point of the bridgehead fighting, for it was the first blow of a series which cracked the Japanese cordon round the bridgehead and opened the way for the advance on Mandalay.

It was probably the stiffest fight the battalion had endured throughout the whole Burma campaign; it was also the action in which Gerald fell; most likely taken by the incessant Japanese sniper fire which accounted for so many of the 2nd Battalion lads.

On Saturday the 3rd of March 1945, Gerald’s home-town newspaper, the Kidderminster Shuttle, published the following report:

“Mrs. Joan Lench, 7 Marlpool Place, received the tragic news last Thursday, that her husband, Pte Gerald Lench, serving with the Worcestershire Regiment in Burma, was killed in action on February 8.

“Pte. Lench joined the army about 18 months ago and had been in Burma for 12 months… Pte. Lench, who was 21, was the son of Mr. Lench, Brinton Crescent, and the late Mrs. Lench.

“His three brothers are all in the services. The eldest, Pte. Eddie Lench (27) is serving in France. L/Bdr. Albert Lench (23) has been in the Middle East for three and a half years, and Pte. Leslie Lench, aged 18, is with the BLA in Holland.”

Today, Gerald rests in peace under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission plaque within the Taukkyan War Cemetery in Myanmar (Burma).

In Myanmar bronze plaques take the place of the Commission’s more traditional Portland headstones to better withstand the climate (they weather better than Portland headstones in the intense heat and the rain of South East Asia).

Taukkyan is a vast cemetery with almost 6,500 graves. They are carefully laid out in rows around the distinctive shape of the Rangoon Memorial, which lists almost 27,000 missing war dead. 

Taukkyan War Cemetery is the largest of the three war cemeteries in Myanmar. It was begun in 1951 for the reception of graves from four battlefield cemeteries at Akyab, Mandalay, Meiktila and Sahmaw which were difficult to access and could not be maintained. Burials were also transferred from civil and cantonment cemeteries, and from a number of isolated jungle and roadside sites.

Though a long way from home, Gerald is not alone. Just a few yards from his plot lies another Kidderminster lad, 19 year-old William Whale who fell whilst serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment.

Back in Blighty, Gerald Lench is commemorated on the Kidderminster War Memorial, which is situated to the front of St. Mary and All Saints Church. Below the names of the fallen on this memorial, the following epitaph is inscribed:

“THESE DIED THE NOBLEST DEATH A MAN MAY DIE ~ FIGHTING FOR GOOD AND RIGHT AND LIBERTY ~ AND SUCH A DEATH IS IMMORTALITY”

Rest In Peace Gerald Lench ~ Your bravery will never be forgotten ~ Your sacrifice at such a young age, will be remembered For Evermore.

FOOTNOTE: Albert Lench’s three other sons all survived the war. The author of this story worked with Eddie Lench for ten years in the 1970s and 80s at Woodward Grosvenor Ltd. in Kidderminster; Eddie was a weaver and every November he was always the first poppy seller on the streets of Bewdley where he lived. He quite rightly wore his beret, his Worcestershire Regiment cap badge and his hard-won medals with great pride. I never once heard him talk about his service or his lost brother. A good man from honest, working-class stock.

Acknowledgements: This story could not have been told were it not for the wonderful team at the Kidderminster Museum of Carpet; most especially Geoff, Jill and Jean. Very many thanks to you all.

Also, details of the Worcesters in Burma: History of the Worcestershire Regiment by A. McDougall.